Several studies have recorded the increasing number of teachers who left the profession in the first year of teaching in recent years. The main cause is the difficulties over the first year of teaching and the unsatisfactory construction and growth of professional identity. This qualitative study attempted to reveal the struggles faced during their first year of teaching by EFL novice teachers working in Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia and how they coped with those struggles regarding their development of professional identity. The struggles are split into internal and external struggles based on the result. The internal struggles are linked to how teachers controlled their emotions self-efficacy, and ability to teach, their jobs and their personal opinions. The external challenges related to the management of the classroom, the abilities, and attitudes of the students, the lack of resources and facilities in the school, the relationships with their colleagues and their salaries. This research is intended to provide more insight into the realities of teachers working in an underdeveloped province like East Nusa Tenggara, in particular how they establish their professional identity in a lack of facilities and learning resources.Keywords: East Nusa Tenggara; Novice Teachers; Professional Identity; Struggles and Strategies

Type Undergraduate thesis writing necessitates EFL students to self-regulate themselves, particularly in overcoming the difficulties they encounter and maintaining their motivation. To date, there has been little research on EFL undergraduate students’ self-regulation, help-seeking, and motivation-regulation in thesis writing, especially in Asian context. Under explanatory mixed-method framework, this research aimed to investigate how Indonesian EFL undergraduate students self-regulated their thesis writing process and to what extent their self-regulation assisted them to seek help and regulate their motivation. The results showed that the students generally demonstrated a high level of self-regulation, help-seeking, and motivation-regulation. Furthermore, it was revealed that self-regulation had a positive, significant, and moderate correlation with help-seeking (r=.461), and a positive, significant, and high correlation with motivation-regulation (r=.648). The findings suggested that self-regulation, help-seeking, and motivation-regulation were important for students to finish their challenging undergraduate thesis. However, even when the overall measured results were good, the support from other people including from the university staff were needed, especially in cultivating students’ self-regulatory mechanism. This research offers implications for the university and thesis advisors.

Self-regulation is an ability that helps the students to maintain their effort in achieving their goals. In self-regulation, students can plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning process. Self-regulation encompasses many aspects. One of them is motivation. Motivation is considered as one of the important aspects of the learning process. Concerning the educational context in Indonesia, thesis writing course is a compulsory course. However, students are required to do the task independently. Therefore, students have to be self-regulated learners during the process of thesis writing. This study aims to investigate students’ motivation-regulation strategies in thesis writing. There were 9 participants involved in this study. The participants were students of English Language and Education Study Program of Sanata Dharma University. This study belongs to mixed-method research. Questionnaire and interview were used as instruments to collect the data. The results of this study revealed that the participants used some motivation-regulation strategies, namely, self-consequating, environmental structuring, goal-oriented self-talk, interest enhancement, and attribution control. Additionally, the majority of the participants were apt to procrastinate writing their thesis. The implications are provided for undergraduate students, thesis advisor, and future researchers.

Critical thinking is explicitly mentioned in many school and university curricula around the world including in the Indonesian education curriculum but it is rarely promoted inside the classrooms. Lack of agreement on its definition and clarity of instruction in the curriculum, the unfavourable culture and the teacher-centered teaching arguably prevent critical thinking to grow. Therefore, more research needs to be undertaken on students’ understanding of and engagement in critical thinking in reading. To fll the gap, this study was conducted, which aimed to investigate Indonesian learners’ critical thinking in reading. One research question was postulated, i.e., How critical are Indonesian EFL learners’ thinking in reading? To answer the question, a mixed method approach was undertaken. The participants of this study were 55 semesters four students enrolled in two classes of Critical Reading and Writing II (CRW2) of the English Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta in the even semester of 2014. The instruments employed were a Likert-scale questionnaire and students’ reflections. Results from both quantitative and qualitative data analyses suggest that most of the students had sufficient declarative knowledge of critical thinking in reading. However, their procedural and conditional knowledge about critical thinking in reading were insufficient. Overall, students indicated some level of critical thinking in reading, but to become critical, they need to be in a learning environment where their critical thinking in reading could be regularly and intensively nurtured. The findings of the research are expected to inform English teachers, lecturers and researchers in Indonesia and other parts of the world about the importance of designing and carrying out the teaching-learning processes that can enhance learners’ declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge about critical thinking in reading.

Critical thinking is explicitly mentioned in many school and university curricula around the world including in the Indonesian education curriculum but it is rarely promoted inside the classrooms. Lack of agreement on its definition and clarity of instruction in the curriculum, the unfavourable culture and the teacher-centered teaching arguably prevent critical thinking to grow. Therefore, more research needs to be undertaken on students’ understanding of and engagement in critical thinking in reading. To fll the gap, this study was conducted, which aimed to investigate Indonesian learners’ critical thinking in reading. One research question was postulated, i.e., How critical are Indonesian EFL learners’ thinking in reading? To answer the question, a mixed method approach was undertaken. The participants of this study were 55 semesters four students enrolled in two classes of Critical Reading and Writing II (CRW2) of the English Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta in the even semester of 2014. The instruments employed were a Likert-scale questionnaire and students’ reflections. Results from both quantitative and qualitative data analyses suggest that most of the students had sufficient declarative knowledge of critical thinking in reading. However, their procedural and conditional knowledge about critical thinking in reading were insufficient. Overall, students indicated some level of critical thinking in reading, but to become critical, they need to be in a learning environment where their critical thinking in reading could be regularly and intensively nurtured. The findings of the research are expected to inform English teachers, lecturers and researchers in Indonesia and other parts of the world about the importance of designing and carrying out the teaching-learning processes that can enhance learners’ declarative, procedural and conditional knowledge about critical thinking in reading.

The quality of education is influenced by many factors, one of which is the quality of the teachers. In the spirit of fostering a strong and resilient young generation, teachers in the capital city of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), Kupang, attempted to break through their limitations in order to form their identity. This research investigated how novice and experienced teachers shifted their vulnerability into professional identity and to what extent this strategy impacted on their professional identity construction in a Junior High School in Kupang. This research presented a thematic analysis on their expectation and anxiety, their strategies and how these strategies helped them to build their identity. Results from data analysis clearly indicated that without critical reflections and actions, both novice and experienced teachers could undergo burnt out when dealing with their vulnerability.

Personal journeys in teacher education programs are crucial in helping pre-service teachers to build “a strong and positive professional identity” (Ivanova & Skara-Mincne, 2016; Yuan & Lee, 2015). This study aimed to elaborate on critical incidents regarding beliefs and motivation to become teachers in shaping teacher professional identity. It involved pre-service teachers who major in a Master’s Program in English Education at a university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. As the methodology to collect data, critical incident techniques was used, which constitute five steps: 1) Establishing general aims; 2) Establishing plans and specifications (formulating frames of references and categories); 3) Collecting data; 4) Analyzing data; and 5) Interpreting, analyzing, and reporting data (Hughes, Williamson, & Lloyd, 2007). Some teachers may mix their experiences with blind judgments due to emotional reactions. Thus, critical incident technique enables pre-service teachers to revisit their incidents critically. The results of the study led to a conclusion that lack of personal connections between the participants and people who had taught them contributed to the participants’ neutral beliefs about teaching, which in turn contributed to their low intrinsic motivation to be teachers.

It is notable to note here that self-efficacy needs to be ingrained strongly within graduate students to show a higher enthusiasm, efforts, and persistence in accomplishing various demanding academic writing projects. Tangibly, there are still many graduate students who lack motivation and confidence when doing academic writings. As a result, their attitudes toward writing turn into negative actions crippling their self-efficacy. This study aimed to investigate graduate students’ perceived self-efficacy in academic writings. One research problem was formulated in this study namely, how do English Education Master Students maintain their self-efficacy to accomplish their academic writings? This study employed a mixed-method harnessing classroom survey and interview questions to gather data from English Education Master Students engaging in academic writings, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta. Findings from this study revealed that graduate students are able to produce more qualified academic writing products when they are motivated continuously by their lecturer. Keywords: self-efficacy, perceptions, academic writings, graduate students, mixed method